Going underground: secrets of the big beauty rebellion
Ten weeks into lockdown Sonia Haria finds many people are willing to break the rules to keep their hair and tweakments in check
Ten weeks without our hairdressers has been annoying for many of us, but it’s proven unbearable for some. An underground market has emerged for backstreet hairdressers and beauticians, keeping Britain secretly beautified in lockdown.
While some hairdressers are looking to put food on their tables, there is also a huge demand from clients for their services, too. If this crisis has shown anything, it’s how much we rely on them: find a good one and they can diligently cover grey hairs and trim split ends, yes, but they can also artfully place highlights to cheat sun-kissed strands, and often serve as a friend and confidant. Pre-lockdown, regular appointments marked in the calendar were worth planning holidays around.
Stephen Beaver, a leading hairdresser from south-west London, has seen a huge demand for services since the start of lockdown to maintain such appointments and, alarmingly, the rise of “lockdown hair parties”.
“As well as regular clients asking me to their homes for their haircuts, I’ve had several clients offering to host a ‘hair party’ for me, which are group appointments of up to eight people for me to cut in one day. They will set up a group Whatsapp chat to gauge interest, and then will ask me if I can come to do everyone’s hair in one day.”
He’s also been offered up to four times his usual rate of £250 a haircut to break lockdown rules. One desperate client offered to send a masked-and-gloved driver on a three-hour round trip to collect him from his home to go to the client’s second home in Berkshire. “The requests are getting slightly more aggressive,” adds Beaver.
Beaver has adamantly declined all offers, waiting until it’s safe to begin working again, especially having had the virus himself. He thinks his clients are disregarding the rules because it seems other people are, too.
Another freelance hairdresser, Louis Byrne, has found the same demand. “Some clients are offering £1,000 for a haircut, but I have taken the lockdown rules seriously and haven’t seen any of my clients.” In Byrne’s opinion, it is men who are breaking the rules, adding that he’s had calls from personal
‘Some clients are offering £1,000 for a haircut, but I’ve taken the rules seriously’
assistants calling on behalf of their bosses for a cut.
Of course, there are some hairdressers taking advantage of the situation, too. Some of these appointments are being advertised by the hairdressers themselves, through social media sites including Facebook and the community app Nextdoor. A quick search for mobile hairdressers in either network can yield new postings from mobile hairdressers advertising their services. Many of these hairdressers are operating to earn a living while in lockdown, despite warnings that they will be reported and could face large fines.
Some of those breaking the rules have set up temporary salons in their gardens, with one client who prefers to remain anonymous saying she was “offered a cut and colour as long as I used the side access into the garden and brought my own mask, gloves and visor”, and that the hairdresser’s wife, a manicurist, “would be on hand to do my nails”. Another nail technician from London, who prefers to stay anonymous, has been repeatedly asked to perform treatments, with one client desperate for a manicure and pedicure for her birthday.
Industry leaders have been quick to condemn any hairdressers or beauticians working illegally, as well as the clients pushing for
appointments. “There’s little point to all the lockdown restrictions if there’s a group of people who are willing to break them. It undermines what everybody is doing,” says Hilary Hall, chief executive of the National Hair and Beauty Federation.
“The people breaking the rules then run the risks of the restrictions being extended for everyone, and it undermines the professionalism of those sticking to the rules.”
There’s also huge demand for aesthetic treatments, with some women desperate to maintain their Botox and filler. Dr Rhona Eskander, a dentist and Botox specialist, has had patients offer double her rate (£350) to see her for Botox. “They’re begging me to open my home,” she says. “One patient said she bought fillers via the internet and can bring them over.” Dr David Jack, a Harley Street doctor, found the same, with a client offering to send a car to his house so he could perform a Botox treatment for them in the vehicle.
Such desperation has also led to a worrying rise in the purchase of at-home kits for DIY injectables. An inquiry was launched last week by the all-party parliamentary group on beauty, aesthetics and wellbeing into the public buying filler injectables online, usually on Amazon or ebay, and administering their own treatments following Youtube tutorial videos.
“The potential complications of at-home fillers are frightening in themselves,” says Lesley Blair, chair of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology, “without the added potential for black market products becoming more prevalent now that people are desperate for their treatments in lockdown.”
For any hairdressers or beauticians operating outside of government guidelines, Blair thinks they will be tainted with a bad reputation and could run into problems in the future. As for the clients, she adds: “Why would you want to risk your life for a haircut or beauty treatment? It’s not life or death.”